One of the things that is becoming more obvious as time goes by is that, in spite of labels like "information superhighway", there are more and more controls over what can be published on the internet today (call it what it is, censorship). It's a slow progress down a slippery slope but I definitely believe that the journey in the wrong direction is well underway.

Basically, there are places in which the free flow of information is becoming constipated. Because of this, what the net really needs is something to clean it out and free up the normal flow. A virtual colonetix, if you will, to clear the blockages and unwanted junk from the system and more importantly, allow free expression to once again rule.

Freenet is the solution to this problem. It's a system that allows the free flow of information in such a way that both protects the identity of those publishing (and downloading or reading) that information and is also very resistant to censorship.

It's an anonymous, decentralized network that takes requests for information and routes them through other nodes at random who then do the same until the data is found. As the requested data is returned, copies of it are made along the way which make it easier to retrieve every time.

Because of this decentralized approach, the node that originated a file does not have to be online for that file to still be available. There are freesites (websites that exist entirely within freenet) that are still available YEARS after the node that originally inserted them went offline.

Freenet is perhaps one of the best emerging tools for free speech online yet. If you believe in freedom of speech, consider running a freenet node today.